Here's what I see is happening in the Lege right now. Under proposed legislation, there are some 300,000 education support staff that are actually going to have their health care stipend entirely wiped out. That's $500 more dollars out of their pockets. Don't think this is such a big deal? Due to rising costs, Comal County school employees will see their health insurance costs rise by 180% by September 1, around the time they'll lose their health insurance stipend. This isn't an isolated incident. $1.8 billion was supposedly set aside for education, but from what I see only $1.45 billion is currently being set aside for schools. This isn't me bitching about more money for education, this is me asking the state to properly fund the current demands.
Wanna know why your property tax rates are so high? It's not necessarily local municipalities run amok, it's asshole state legislators sending unfunded mandates down to the local level, forcing them to account for all these rising costs.
Match their insurance to that of those teachers and watch how fast this crap gets fixed.
Bingo. In fact, it's almost never the municipalities. School taxes account for well over 60% of property taxes in Texas - in some places, that percentage is even higher. Cities are, honestly, a drop in the bucket in comparison.
And why? Two words: unfunded mandates, like Rawhide said. Over the past couple of decades, state funding of schools has dropped from 50% of their funding to 40% of their funding. Note: they have not gotten rid of any requirements to schools. No, they've added to them. Put that together with the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the standardized testing - oh, and don't forget rising fuel costs, so it's harder and harder to get kids (especially in rural areas) to school at all - and you get a system that's past bending and gone straight on to broken.
Enough with the unfunded mandates, people!
unfunded man date = my social life
Rationale for health money was to recruit teachers where there is a shortage. A manufactured shortage, but a shortage nonetheless. I don't think there is a shortage of support staff since anyone with a pulse can do the job.
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Amen, brother. Freakin' morons. They cannot relate to the average family anymore. They only know what they are told to know by the leadership. I cannot figure out for the life of me why rural Republican legislators vote against their schools so regularly. I guess they like dumbing down their constituents so no one can present a primary challenge. Run out the good teachers so the school have to hire whatever they can get their hands on. Whatever the reason, they will pay in the end. They need to read Strayhorn's document "The Cost of Underpaying Texas Teachers" and take it to heart. She's warned them.
Man, those guys just piss me off!